COLUMN: Grey Matters – Spirituality and religion

Blessed are those whose strength is in You, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. Psalm 84:5

This year I joined nearly half a million pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago (the way of St. James). It is not one trail, but a network of several. Some routes take days, others take weeks. Legend holds that St James’s remains were brought from Jerusalem to northern Spain, where he was buried in what is now the city of Santiago de Compostela, the destination of the Camino de Santiago. According to the pilgrim’s reception office almost half of the people who make this journey do so for religious reasons.

So why do the other 250,000 secular pilgrims take the time and effort to do a pilgrimage rooted in centuries of Christianity? Along the way I asked some of them what attracted them to this religious trail. They feel there is something about the experience of walking the Camino that they can still spiritually benefit from. They want to be open to something greater than themselves, but not religion. This lines up with the wider arc of society, which during the past five centuries has become more individualistic as more people have walked away from formal religion and embraced informal spirituality.

Religion is an organized system of beliefs, traditions and rituals practiced by a community, while spirituality is a broader, personal quest for meaning, purpose, and connection to something larger than oneself. Key differences include the emphasis on an external, communal structure for religion versus the internal, individual experience for spirituality. Religion provides food in a communal setting. Spirituality lets people go to the kitchen and find their own.

In a recent article titled ‘The Secular Pilgrim’, using the Camino trail as a backdrop, Liz Bucar proposes that a spiritual experience does not become as permanent without the religious framework:

“Perhaps a spiritual seeker on the Camino will experience something significant — a new awareness, insight into the role of physical suffering or the power of the pilgrimage community. But without conviction that these insights are true, they won’t return home truly transformed. I’m not trying to talk non-Christians out of their dream Camino adventure. But I do have some words of caution. Spiritual shortcuts skip over doctrines, authoritative structures and systems of values, but religions require submission, cultivation and fidelity. Engaging in spiritual practices without understanding their religious or social context can lead people to associate with institutions or ideas that are against their own values. This can unsettle their sense of self.”

I wonder if, a reason for the heightened anxiety in our current generation is that we are having to figure out everything for ourselves instead of resting into caring community. We are constantly searching for our own combination of ingredients, when sometimes we just need to receive another helping of grandmother’s homemade chicken noodle soup. Walking the Camino as a secular pilgrim is like adding bacon bits to the soup. It might suit some, but there is probably a good reason grandma doesn’t do it. At the same time, we should acknowledge that some people in religious organizations have caused real spiritual trauma and it is important that people be kept from more harm.

My column photo comes from the Camino where I stayed at an ancient monastery the first night. When deciding to do any pilgrimage, we would benefit from digging into its religious history and meaning. We can be religious without being spiritual, spiritual without being religious, or both. It doesn’t have to be one or the other! Consider pursuing meaning and purpose both through religious and spiritual emphases. It is good to be grounded in religion, while being able to grow inner faith at the same time. Let the pilgrimage begin!

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Gary Dyck is a chaplain and spiritual care provider at a hospital and personal care home in the Southeast.